The Rose Cape
by GreatWyrmGold
Summary: Ruby Rose finds herself in the dark kingdom of Brockton-Bay, which has no Grimm outside but has many supervillains inside. The obvious choice, to beat up supervillains and become a superhero, turns out to be a lot more complicated than she had imagined...
1. Germination 1:1

I darted across the street, rose petals fluttering in my wake. Anyone watching would see a red blur going from one alley to another down the street on the other side, but at this time of night and in this neighborhood, there wasn't anyone watching. The only people around were me and some gang members in red and green clothes without much else in common. If I move quickly, they won't notice, and there's enough distant machines and noises from the nearby houses to mostly mask my noises. Stifling a yawn, I try to remind myself why I'm staying up so much past what should be my bedtime.

A couple of weeks ago, I fought Roman Torchwick at the docks and was knocked unconscious. I don't know what happened next, but I woke up in an dirty alley in a place that smelled like smoke, except worse. The kingdom the alley was in, which I learned was called Brockton-Bay, was a _lot_ smaller than Vale and didn't have walls, and it was smelly and dirty. There were lots of poor people and abandoned buildings and graffitti and stuff, and plenty of crime too. Still, there were two things that made up for it. The first was that, as far as I could tell, there were no Grimm.

The second was the superheroes.

On my third day in Brockton-Bay, I got to see a few superheroes. Two flying women with lasers fought a third, glowing one, while a flying girl punched a big bundle of metal things. The supervillains ran, but the heroes chased them. Aside from having really, really _cool_ superpowers instead of weapons (usually), they seemed a lot like Huntsmen back home, except fighting supervillains instead of Grimm. I decided I wanted to be one, and tried to figure out how.

I went to the library to use their computers, and their Internet. The closest thing back home was a bunch of ways to send stuff from one terminal to another, and between kingdoms; this Internet had a lot more structure, and a _lot_ more stuff on it. Some of that stuff was neat, like finding out that Brockton-Bay was just one of a bunch of kingdoms and towns in "America," and that the top superhero team there was the Protectorate. There were a bunch of independent vigilantes, though, and in between were people like the New Wave, who I saw fight the supervillains.

And so I prepared myself. I had to get a costume, first of all. That was tricky; it was hard to get any money. I managed to get a few dollars doing various odd jobs for people, but that barely covered food, sometimes not even that. Still, by managing to save up a few dollars, I bought a red ski mask; combined with my favorite hooded cloak (which I'd stopped wearing after getting a bunch of weird looks from people, none of whom were wearing cloaks of any kind), it made a decent, if cheap, costume.

I didn't have much else. Luckily, I still had Crescent Rose, although I kept it hidden and folded up (I don't think anyone who saw it thought it was a gun); I also had my Scroll, and a dirty backpack I found in a dumpster on my second day. Aside from that, I had Aura to keep me healthy and reasonably presentable, and a Semblance. I was ready to be a superhero, and just needed one thing.

A nemesis.

This lead to a search on Parahumans Online ("parahuman" being a long word for "superhero or supervillain"), and then I found a problem. There were a _lot_ of good nemeses in Brockton-Bay. There was Kaiser, a guy who thought people with white skin were better than people with other colors of skin, which sounded like a really, _really_ bad thing since most of the people I've seen were pink, not white. Coil was a scary guy who might or might not be a real supervillain, but he definitely seemed to be plotting a lot. And there were a lot of people who didn't do much, both ones like Stain who had a lot of potential but didn't really care and ones like Leet and Uber who tried hard but weren't very good; I didn't want to pick one of them as a nemesis.

In the end, I chose Lung. He was big and scary, and forced a lot of people who didn't want to work for him to work for him. He had one supervillain working for him, Oni Lee, with a teleportation power that was sorta similar to my speedy Semblance, but that still meant there weren't a lot of supervillains for me to fight. Coil might not have any, and Kaiser had way too many for me to fight. And Lung had almost never been defeated; if anything could get me into the Protectorate, beating up Lung probably could.

So I went to try and find Lung, which is a _lot_ harder than it sounds. Lung had a lot of normal gang members, and while some were innocent civilians, a lot more weren't. Some of them beat up anyone who didn't look a little like Ren. Of course, there were thugs everywhere, but most didn't get in my way, and anyways Lung's docks were worse than most places. Eventually, I realized a clever way to find Lung: Follow a bunch of his gang until they met him. I've been trying that for a week now, and didn't get anything but tired. But I need to keep trying.

Tonight is my lucky night. They met up with some more, and I decided to hide in an alley not far from them. I almost fell asleep, waiting for something to happen, but then a bunch of people came out of one of the buildings. The last was over six feet tall, shirtless, and muscular, covered with tattoos of weird snakes with legs and mustaches and stuff. He had a metal mask on his face, one which undeniably marked him as Lung.

I tried to remember what I knew about Lung. He was a pyra-something, with fire stuff. He also turned into a big (well, big _ger_ ) dragon-like form, with metal scales and wings and stuff. There was some other stuff, but part of it was that he couldn't or didn't transform when he wasn't fighting, and that once he started it was hard to stop him. I rubbed the sleepiness out of my eyes and tried to pay attention as Lung started talking. I briefly noticed that some of the gang members had guns, but that didn't worry me. Those guys at From Dust Till Dawn had guns, and I still beat them up. I shook my head and tried to focus on Lung. He was talking funny, but I could understand him with some difficulty.

"...you see the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?"

My blood ran cold. Could I have heard wrong? Could it be _right?_ Murder was _unthinkable_ , even for people like Torchwick. And to kill kids, to plan killing kids, that was much, much worse. _Lung isn't a person_ , I decided. _He's more like a Grimm in human skin._ And his gang members weren't appalled or surprised; they were going along with it!

I could be wrong. Surely I was wrong...but could I risk it?

I charged, drawing and transforming Crescent Rose as I ran, tried to shoot (I failed—the Dust just didn't react) and using my Semblance to cover the distance once it was mostly out. I knocked a couple gang members into another before spinning my scythe and striking another, who was trying to draw a sword thing with a flat blade and only a knuckle guard. He fell over and started bleeding a lot. I realized that none of these people had any Aura.

 _I need to be careful. Just because these people were going to kill kids doesn't make killing_ them _right._

I folded up Crescent and used it as a bludgeon, knocking the gang members away from myself more carefully. The others started backing away; some pulled out pistols and started shooting at me, but I dodged most and the few that hit didn't do much. Lung was a bigger problem, he was already starting to transform. Lung struck out with a burst of flame, but I just dashed to the side; it didn't even scratch my Aura.

 _He's going to kill kids. He's different. He's...a_ monster _._ I unfolded Crescent Rose into its full scythe form and charged at Lung, lopping off his right leg at the knee. Lung fell over, lunging at me, but I dashed away. Lung looked around, saw that his gang members were getting away, and _exploded_. A wave of heat washed over me, would have burned me if not for my Aura. He got up on hands and knee, and exploded again. I saw a car turning the corner towards us, before stopping and reversing and driving away. Lung exploded a third time, but this time I dashed beyond the range of the explosion. A bunch of his body was covered in scales, maybe a quarter of it. And there was more leg than when I cut it off.

 _He can regrow limbs?_ I suddenly remembered something on his wiki page about regeneration. _This is going to get hard. I can't do anything to him except kill him, and I probably can't kill him without cutting his head off. So...I have to cut...his head off._ I forced myself to try, and dashed towards him; I hesitated before swinging, though, and that gave Lung enough time to grab me by the front of my cloak and hurl me into a wall. He staggered up, one leg still missing a bit, and blasted me with another blast of fire before I could even stand up. More metal scales were forcing their way through his skin before laying flat. _I have to end this fast._

I got up, then charged at Lung, enduring another blast of fire before leaping and trying to use Crescent Rose's recoil to send me flying up so I could cut his head off. I crashed directly into Lung's chest, and then realized that I'd forgotten that it wasn't working. Lung grabbed Crescent Rose in one claw and my cloak in the other, exploded again, and pulled his arms apart. Crescent Rose was yanked from my hands, and Lung tossed it aside before swinging me up, grabbing my cape in both claws, and smashing me into the ground.

I pulled free and dashed for Crescent Rose, but one of the gang members grabbed it. "Hey!" I shouted, before he clubbed me with Crescent and several more shot me. I slammed an elbow between the legs of the guy with Crescent, and grabbed it before Lung grabbed me again with a burning hand, and raked me with his other claw, also burning. The gang members backed up more as I swung Crescent at Lung. The blade buried itself in his shoulder, but the frame along the top got caught in his scales. He doubled over, yanking Crescent Rose out of my hand again, and I thought I'd finally done something to him...

...until his back split in half, with the yucky gap getting covered by scales. He stood up, Crescent Rose still in his shoulder, maybe seven and a half feet tall and mostly armored. _But then, so was that Deathstalker the others and I fought at initiation. And Lung's just like that._ I leapt up and grabbed Crescent's handle, then spun about to unstick it. Lung pounded me into the ground before I landed, breaking the asphalt of the road with my body. I rolled away from him and got onto my hands and knees, almost stood up before Lung kicked me, followed with another blast of fire. I dashed for an alley on the other side of the street, pulled down a fire escape ladder, leapt up into it, and dashed to the top, hoping to get a moment to breathe and plan without getting pounded by a firey monster every few seconds.

Lung didn't follow me up the fire escape. He ran across the road, jumped, and hit the building most of the way up. He stuck, somehow, and started climbing. _This would be a really good time to be able to shoot him._ I could just run, jump off the building and use my Semblance to get most of a block away before Lung realized I was gone...but that wouldn't just be a loss for me, it would mean the death of the kids Lung was going to kill. I _had_ to stop him. If my Scroll got any kind of signal, maybe I could call the local heroes and get them to help, maybe figure out what kids he was going to kill and save them...but it didn't, so I couldn't. So I waited, and prepared to cut off Lung's head as soon as it showed above the edge of the roof.

 _I know I have to. He's a monster, he's going to kill kids. It's right, why does it feel so wrong?_

After a couple minutes, I saw something come up. I swung Crescent Rose at it, and watched as Lung's... _claw_...fell to the ground. He pulled himself over the edge in one quick motion, blasting the roof with fire, covered by flaming metal scales, before getting a leg over and standing up. He was easily eight feet tall and three feet wide at the shoulder, with eyes that looked more like red-hot metal than anything human. I charged at him, and cut through his side. It started fixing itself before I'd even brought Crescent Rose back for another swing. He covered the roof in flames again.

I swung several times, leg, arm, wrist, and cut off his other claw with the last swing. The others made more cuts but didn't do much else. Lung was slower from the cuts, but getting bigger and stronger every second. Meanwhile, my Aura got depleted from every swipe of his claws or burst of flame, and it was coming back _much_ slower than Lung was regenerating.

I was trying to think of some way to win when a monstrous cross between an Ursa, a lizard, and raw meat crashed into Lung.


	2. Germination 1:2

The monster landed on Lung. It was as big as an Ursa, maybe bigger, and covered with a tangle of muscle and bone. Lung, currently short his claws, held the other monster's claws from his head with his forearms. It didn't work well, and the monster smacked Lung in the head with one of his claws. Lung fell to the side and blasted a stream of fire at the monster, making it back away in pain...but not for long. It charged at Lung and knocked him off the roof, hitting the ground with a noisy crash.

I walked over to the edge of the roof to watch them fight, but was distracted by a thump behind me. Turning around, I saw another monster land on the roof. It was a bit smaller than the other and with a longer tail but was much the same overall, aside from the two people riding it. _Riding_ the monster! One was really tall and dressed in black leather, with a skull-shaped helmet; the other wasn't really in costume, just a sleeveless T-shirt, a skirt, some boots, and a plastic dog mask. There was something odd about them that I couldn't quite place. The first was definitely a guy (girls usually didn't get that tall), and I almost thought the second one was too until I saw the skirt and looked over her again. Even though she wasn't wearing much of a costume, she did have a mask, and the other guy was _definitely_ in a costume. Since they were fighting Lung, that could only mean one thing.

"You guys are superheroes, too?"

Skull and Dog—I need to call them something—looked at each other.

"What?"

"Nothing," Skull said. "Listen, I appreciate you trying to deal with Lung, but...we've had more experience, I think you should leave this to us." Dog walked over to the edge of the roof to watch Lung and the first monster fight.

"No, I'm fine!" My Aura was seriously depleted, but they didn't need to know that.

"Trust me, here. You'd...probably just get in the way." Skull said to Dog, "Maybe get the others here?"

Dog whistled and pointed at the ground. The monster on the roof leapt down to join the first. She whistled again and gestured, and another monster, bigger than the others, leapt from one roof to another. Three more riders—a blonde girl in black and what looked like blue, a crowned boy in white, and another person in red and black and a funny mask—quickly got off, before Dog ordered the third monster to the ground as well.

"I wouldn't! Get in your way, I mean."

"What're you talking about?" the blue girl asked.

"This superhero wants to help us," Skull explained.

"Ah. Do you have a name?"

"I'm Ruby."

"Nephele. Ruby, have you thought this through? Do you have a plan?"

"Um..." Plans would be a good idea. Mine didn't go beyond "stop Lung from killing the kids," which turned into "kill the monster". That hadn't seemed quite right, but I couldn't think of anything else. But these people...they seemed to know what they were doing.

Wait. Stupid. I shouldn't have told them my real name! I should have called myself the Crimson Crusader or something superheroey!

"I...guess you can handle him alone," I muttered.

"Great. Hey guys, let's make this quick. We'll need to scram in a few minutes."

"Why?" I asked.

"Backup's coming in a few minutes," Nephele explained. "We don't want to be around when he does."

"Oni Lee?" I guessed. The other superheroes ignored me. Dog whistled three times, the first shorter than the others, and after some crunching sounds the three monsters climbed onto the roof. The superheroes mounted the monsters, and were about to leave.

"Wait! ...Could I join your team?"

The boy with the crown sighed.

"Do you have a PHO account?" Nephele asked.

"Um, no?"

"Just check the Connections section of the forums." With that, Dog whistled again, and the dogs jumped off the roof.

I found a comfortable spot to sit and sat down. Suddenly, I realized how _tired_ I was. Not just fighting Lung or using so much Aura; it was really late, probably after midnight. I didn't really have anywhere I consistently slept, but as long as it didn't rain, this would work. It was nice and warm, for now, and after the fight with Lung people probably wouldn't bother me or anyone else around. It should be quiet, too.

Should be doesn't always mean is. There were noises of fighting for a little bit as I tried to make myself comfortable, and a minute or two after that, a noisy thing that sounded like a motorcycle passed on the street beneath. A minute or two after that, there was a soft thud as someone landed on the roof. I rolled over to see who it was, and saw Armsmaster.

I didn't look into Brockton-Bay's superheroes much, but I knew who Armsmaster was. He was the leader of Brockton-Bay's Protectorate group, and one of the more important people in the Protectorate as a whole (probably why he got to lead Brockton-Bay's). I saw an advertisement for Armsmaster comic books, which they probably didn't make for superheroes who no one cared about. (At least, they wouldn't get advertised.) He didn't look much like a Huntsman, but that was just because he was covered head to toe (except for the lower half of his face and his close-trimmed beard) with dark blue armor with silver highlights; other than that, he fit the part. He looked really _heroic_ , not like those other superheroes, who looked more like kids trying to be superheroes. It was something almost indescripable about their posture, the way they held themselves and talked.

And Armsmaster's weapon was the _coolest_ I had ever read about. It was a halberd, and had plasma cutters along the blade to cut anything the blade alone couldn't, alongside all sorts of gadgets like a flamethrower to burn things, an "electromagnetic pulse" to disable electronics, and apparently a grappling hook. I heard he had more than one, with different sets of gadgets. For some reason, not even one of them seemed to have a gun, though. Maybe if I joined the Protectorate, he'd help me with upgrading Crescent Rose, or even let _me_ help _him_ with his halberd. At most times of day, I'd be delighted to meet him. He was my favorite superhero _ever_ , especially since he was _real_. The only thing is, tonight I was really, really tired, too exhausted to care. Well, to care as much as I might have.

I sat up and re-fastened my cloak, which I was using as a blanket. "Um...hi?"

"Hello. Are you aware of an altercation which involved members of the ABB?"

"...Huh?"

"Did you see Lung fighting?"

"Oh. Yeah, I fought him. And then—"

Armsmaster frowned a little. "You fought Lung?"

"Yeah. It was really—"

"Then why are you sleeping so close to the location of the fight? Aren't you concerned about potential retaliation?"

"I'm...I'm just tired, and..."

"Do try to be more careful in the future."

This wasn't how I imagined this would go. I just beat up—well, _helped_ beat up—one of the scariest supervillains in the kingdom, and I was getting lectured by my superhero idol.

"Um...okay. I will. I promise I will." I stood up.

"You fought Lung. Were you responsible for him being..." Armsmaster paused. I'm not sure if he was trying to search for the right word, or surprised, or maybe just pausing for dramatic effect. "Mangled?"

"Huh?"

"When I arrived, he was missing much of his legs and arms."

"Oh! No, no, I didn't do that. I mean, I tried to, because I heard he was going to shoot a bunch of kids—who would _do_ that?—but I didn't actually do much. He regrew it. But just before you got here, I ran into a bunch of other superheroes who attacked him with these big monsters. Maybe they did it?"

Armsmaster was definitely frowning now. "Superheroes, with big monsters?"

"Yeah. Um, I didn't get most of their names, but one girl was named Nefa—Neffle—Nephele. And there was another guy with a skull helmet, and—"

"—A boy wearing white, with a coronet?"

"A what?"

"A small crown. And a girl with a plastic dog mask, and another with a gas mask?"

"What's a gas mask?"

"One of those masks with big lenses and a filter, like in old war movies."

"Oh. Um, that might be the kind of mask the one was wearing. And yeah, that sounds like the others. Why?"

"They weren't superheroes."

My jaw dropped. "What?"

"They're a group of villains called the Undersiders. They are new, so we don't know much about them. Grue and Hellhound—the darkness-generating one with the skull mask and the girl with the dog mask—we know a bit about them, because they worked on their own some before the Undersiders were founded. We know a little about Spitfire, the one with the gas mask, though not as much. Almost nothing about Regent, the one with the coronet, or Tattletale." Armsmaster sighed. "And now they've recruited another one. I don't suppose you happened to see...Nephele's power? Or learn anything about her?"

"No. Sorry. She seemed pretty nice, but then..."

Armsmaster nodded.

"...well, she's a supervillain, and—"

"I understand."

An awkward silence followed. I tried not to yawn.

"So, um...I've got this." I unfolded Crescent Rose, twirled it, and stuck the blade into the roof.

Armsmaster winced. "Try not to do that more than you need to; property damage is something best avoided."

"Oh. Um, sorry." This _really_ wasn't going well.

"Did you make that weapon?"

"Yeah! I—well, it's a long story, but—"

"You're a Tinker, then?"

Tinkers were superheroes who made really cool, futuristic gadgets and stuff. Armsmaster was one, and one of the most powerful superheroes in the world, Dragon, was one, too. There were a bunch of others; a lot made powered armor and lasers and stuff, but some didn't or couldn't, so they made other stuff instead. Some of that Tinker stuff was a lot like stuff that was common back home, but then again there was common stuff here that would amaze just about anyone from Remnant.

"Um, kinda? I..." I didn't know what to say, and Armsmaster didn't follow up. _This is usually a better icebreaker. ...Although I've only used it a couple times before now._

"So." Armsmaster shifted his posture a little, being a bit more...casual? "We need to decide where things go from here."

"What do you mean? Could I be in the Protectorate?"

Armsmaster shifted his head. "...Perhaps. But I was thinking of a more immediate concern." I was worried that I was in trouble for something, until he said "Who gets credit for Lung?"

I was about to say something, but Armsmaster raised a hand. "Hear me out. I'm sure what you've done tonight is spectacular. You played a part in bringing a major villain into custody—"

"Hold on a second, what did you do with Lung? Isn't he just going to—"

"He was unconscious when I arrived. The first thing I did was pump him full of tranquilizers to keep him that way, followed by restraints and a steel cage welded to the sidewalk. I'll pick him up on my way back."

"Oh. Okay. Um...continue?"

Armsmaster nodded. He didn't look as annoyed as I would expect, since I just interrupted him. "Tonight, you played a part in capturing a major villain into custody. Now, you need to consider the consequences."

"Huh? What consequences?"

"Lung has an extensive gang throughout Brockton Bay, and to a lesser extent neighboring towns and cities. He also has two superpowered flunkies. Oni Lee—"

"Wait, two?"

"—and Bakuda. I take it you've heard of Oni Lee?"

I nodded. "He teleports and stuff. But who's Bakuda?"

"A new recruit. We don't know much about her. She made her first appearance and demonstration of her powers by way of a drawn out terrorism campaign against Cornell University. Lung presumably recruited her and brought her to Brockton Bay after the New York Protectorate stopped her. This is...a concern."

"Why? What does she do?"

"She's a tinker, like you and me." I didn't try to correct him. How would I explain it? _"I know this is really futuristic by your standards, but it's normal on my world?"_ Armsmaster continued. "Most tinkers have a specialty or a special trick. Something they're particualrly good at or something that they can do, which other Tinkers can't. Bakuda's specialty is bombs."

"Bombs? Like, high-tech bombs?"

"Indeed."

"Oh. That's bad."

"Indeed. I hope you understand both the danger posed by Bakuda to the city, and the danger you face from the ABB as a whole."

"I'm not afraid of them!"

Armsmaster ignored me. "I have no doubt both Oni Lee and Bakuda will have two goals. First, they will want to free Lung—"

"But you won't let them?"

Armsmaster sighed, annoyed. _I should probably stop interrupting him._ "Of course not. Their other goal may be harder to stop. They _will_ want to get revenge on whoever got their boss captured...and as I hope you're aware, these are scary people. Scarier than their boss, in some ways."

"What are you saying?"

"It would be dangerous for you to take credit, even partial credit, for Lung's defeat. I'm guessing you don't have much at the moment? No home, no friends or relatives in town with one, possibly none at all?"

"That's...that's basically right."

"You're unusually vulnerable to the ABB's revenge, then. You won't only have to worry about reprisals from Bakuda and Oni Lee, but also any unpowered member of the gang who came across wherever you usually sleep, if they didn't just ambush you in the day."

"Eh, I can take 'em."

Armsmaster sighed. "Perhaps a few, once. But I doubt you could handle all of the ABB, on a campaign of revenge. Not on your own."

I shifted uneasily. "So...what can I do?"

"The way I see it, you have two options. The first is to not take credit, to keep your head down and hopefully fly under the radar. No one will know about your involvement. It's as simp—"

"You want me to li—?"

"As for the other...how old are you?"

"Fifteen and a half. Well, closer to fifteen and three-quarters, I guess, but who counts their age in _quarters_?"

"You aren't old enough for the Protectorate, but if you wanted, you could join the Wards and get many of the same benefits."

"What's the Wards?"

"It's...essentially the Protectorate, for children. You'll get many of the same benefits that the Protectorate receives, and you'll graduate to them when you come of age, but in the meantime you'll have a number of du—"

"Wait, if I'm a Ward, I'll join the Protectorate in a couple years?"

"Yes, although—"

"I'm in. I wanna be a Ward."

It's weird. I would have expected that to be what he wanted me to do, but he looked annoyed.


	3. Germination 1:3

Armsmaster shook my shoulder. "Ruby, we're here."

I woke up with a shock. "I wasn't sleeping!" But I was. Had been, I mean. I had fallen asleep against Lung's cage, on the back of Armsmaster's motorcycle. It was a big, noisy motorcycle ( _way_ cooler than Yang's, and not just because it was bigger and noisier), but I was so tired that I fell asleep anyways.

"I would have asked if you were up to being interviewed tonight, but I think I have my answer."

"I'm not tired!"

"I see. Well, I'll just get you settled in a room and you can sit in there."

My memories of walking into the building are fuzzy. I vaguely remember that the building was almost empty, being lead to one corner, a room with a big terminal on the wall, and then collapsing on a bed.

* * *

I began waking up slowly, then much faster once I realized there was some cloth stuff over my head. I struggled and got tangled up in all sorts of bonds. After a couple minutes I started to remember what was going on before I went to sleep and identified the cloth over my head as the ski mask, twisted a bit to one side, and all the bonds as bedsheets and my cloak. It took several minutes to disentangle myself, which I did as quickly as I could because I was excited about joining the Wards. Also, I needed to eat and pee.

I quickly got myself organized, leaving Crescent Rose, the ski mask, and the backpack on the bed (presumably my bed, for now at least). I was in a little room in a big room, the little room surrounded by walls that didn't reach the ceiling. It had a bed, a little dresser, and a table; smaller than the rooms at Beacon, but those were for four people. Going through the door, I came into a bigger room. To the left was the big terminal I vaguely remembered seeing last night; to my sides and behind me were more little rooms like the one I was in; and much of the rest of the room was full of furniture, with a couple normal-sized terminals on a desk in a corner and a screen on one wall. Not far from the little terminals on the desk was a pair of doors which probably lead to bathrooms.

"Um...hello?" No one answered, so I used the ladies' room (empty) and then went to the door at the other end of the room and opened it. "Hello?" I looked around. No one was there, but there was a machine of some kind at this end of the hallway and an elevator at the other. After looking around for a moment, I go back to the door to the big room, but when I tug on it, it's locked. _Aw, man._ Shrugging, I went to the elevator. The door opened, and I stared at the buttons. Normally, this is the part where I'd press a button to go somewhere, but I didn't have any idea what button to press.

The elevator started to move on its own; I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for the vague impressions of distant Auras starting to go up. "Is this elevator telepathic?" I asked the elevator. _Wait, if it's telepathic, I don't need to talk to it. Can elevators be telepathic? This elevator's definitely fancy enough to be._ If the elevator was telepathic, it didn't respond to those thoughts of mine. After a minute, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. They were fancy doors, and on the other side were a few people in some armor-ey stuff. They looked a little like security guards at the Communications Tower, except less shiny and better-armed. None of them were holding weapons, but they look surprised by me being here, so it's _probably_ a good idea to make them not shoot me.

"Um...hi?"

"Who are you?" one asked.

"Oh! I'm Ruby Rose. I, uh...I was left upstairs by Armsmaster last night? After beating up Lung? Well, kinda. The Othersiders helped, and so did Ar—"

"Ah," another one said. "I think we heard about you. You're supposed to have an interview with some of the Protectorate, I think?"

"Oh! I remember that. Armsmaster mentioned something about an interview, I think. I...I was pretty tired," I admitted.

"Must've been," a guy in back said.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

The second one said, "It's almost noon."

"Oh! Wow, I slept a while. Um, can I get some breakfast first? Or lunch, I guess?"

"We'll see what we can do," the first one said. "But we should call the Protectorate HQ first."

"Oh, can I have strawberries?"

"We'll see what we can do," he repeated.

* * *

I learned that the Wards had to go to school, because they were kids, but the Protectorate weren't so they just did hero things all day. Mostly, those hero things were paperwork and being ready for if something happened, with some patrols and the occasional public event too. Armsmaster and other Tinkers worked on their stuff, Thinkers would answer questions, and of course there were always people who couldn't fit the normal rules, but most of the Protectorate peoples' schedules were pretty flexible. Armsmaster was working on his stuff, so he came, with Miss Militia, the second-in-command of Brockton Bay's Protectorate and either my second- or third-favorite local hero. She could make any weapon she wanted, which was awesome, but Dauntless was so awesome that his awesome leaked out of him and made his stuff so awesome it glowed and did other cool stuff! And it was kinda weird that Miss Militia wore the emblem of America on her face.

Eating lunch (or breakfast) with two of the _coolest_ superheroes in the Kingdom was just...indescribable. It reminded me a little of the first time I talked with Headmaster Ozpin, except a lot more of that; they inspired the same kind of awe and intimidatedness. I mostly wound up being quiet, eating a sandwich, pear, and strawberry parfait, saying a sentence here and there. Miss Militia and Armsmaster talked a little, too, and then we went for the interview.

I expected a room like the one I met the Headmaster in the first time, barren and dark and big. It was the opposite, really, more like a classroom than an interrogation room. It was cozy, with a few chairs around a small table with a terminal on it, a dark red carpet on the floor, tan-ish walls around us, well-lit. Armsmaster and Miss Militia sat on one side of the table, and I sat in one of the chairs on the other.

Miss Militia typed on the terminal a bit; then there was an awkward moment of silence, then Armsmaster said, "Let's start at the beginning. Your name?"

"Ruby Rose. But didn't I tell you that already?"

"Yes. It's just a formality. And you want to join the Wards?"

"More than anything."

Miss Militia nodded, and I'm pretty sure she was smiling behind the stripey thing she wore on her face. She seemed nice. "Your powers?"

"Well..." _This is as good a time as any._ "Technically, I kinda don't have any. I'm not from this world."

Miss Militia raised her eyebrows in what was probably surprise. She glanced at Armsmaster, who shifted his head from side to side a little.

"Um...well, see, I'm from a Kingdom called Vale, and it's on a continent called Vytal, on a world called Remnant. And we don't have superpowers there, just Aura. And Dust. And people have Semblances, but I think that's basically Aura too. I, uh, didn't do too great in that part of school. I was better at the...y'know... _oooOOH_ ," (Miss Militia winced for a moment) "w-taaah, hooh...that stuff."

"Fighting? You learned how to fight in your school?" Miss Militia asked.

"Well...yeah."

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen and a half."

Miss Militia didn't look happy about that. "So. This...how does your Aura work?"

"Uh, well, everything has it, except Grimm of course. And you need to awaken it for it to do anything, well much of anything. I think there's a few things it does for everyone. But when it's awakened, it protects you, and you can learn to use it offensively too, making you stronger and faster and sometimes just smashing someone with a bunch of Aura. I can't do that." As I was talking, Miss Militia was typing on her terminal.

"And this is how you did all you did last night?" Armsmaster asked.

"Well, a lot of it. And technically, my Semblance is part of my Aura, but—"

"What is a Semblance?" Miss Militia asked.

"Well, everyone figures one out. Everyone with Aura, I mean, so probably no one here. Anyways, it's kinda a specific way to use your Aura. Like, I'm really fast, because that's my Semblance. My sister, Yang, she gets stronger whenever she gets hit. That's her Semblance. And Weiss—"

"I see," Armsmaster interrupted.

"You said Aura has to be awakened," Miss Militia said. "How did you awaken yours?"

"Oh, it's not hard. I can do it for you guys right now, if you want."

Miss Militia shrugged and got up. I did, too, and dashed over to meet her. I'd never awakened anyone's Aura, but it wasn't that hard. Everyone's Aura was waiting to be awoken, really. It was mostly reminding the soul of what it had to do, showing it how it could do so. There were some words, too; Ruby wasn't sure why they were important, but she was pretty sure they were.

"Uh, close your eyes. I think that's important." Miss Militia did; I reached a hand up to her shoulder, and closed my eyes too. Her soul felt weird, kinda...fuzzy around the edges, I guess? Maybe all people here were like that? Or did that always happen? Oh, right, the words. I thought them loud and whispered them under my breath. _For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a...a paragon of virtue and glory to go above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death_. I carefully reached a hand up to Miss Militia's chest. _I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect you._ I felt really drained all of a sudden; I knew it took some Aura to awaken someone else's Aura, but I didn't think it would be this much.

"Are you alright?" Armsmaster asked immediately.

"I'm fine," I said. "This is supposed to happen. I think; this is the first time I've actually done this. It takes a little energy to unlock someone's Aura, but then it just sustains itself."

"I see. Now, if you would return to your seat..."

"Oh. Sure." I dashed back, realizing how much awakening Miss Militia's Aura had taken out of me.

"Thank you. I think we understand your...Aura and Semblance. The weapon you were using last night?"

"Oh, that's Crescent Rose. It's a high-caliber sniper-scythe, I made it myself."

"It's a scythe?" Miss Militia asked.

I nodded. "And it's also a gun."

"I...see."

"And you said you made it? Could you make similar weapons?"

"Well, I guess? It's just a folding-frame weapon, anyone on Remnant can get one and everyone at Signal learns to make them. Oh, Signal's the school I went to before Beacon. I'm training—"

"Mm. Is there anything else you...made, or brought from Remnant that we don't have here?"

"Well, there's my Scroll. I mean, you have things like it, but they're thicker and don't fold up."

"Pardon me, but could you—"

"I've got it right here, actually." I took my Scroll out of my pocket and handed it to Armsmaster. He handed it to Miss Militia, who fiddled with it for a moment before sliding it open.

"It's dead."

"Yeah, it was like that since I came here. Crescent wasn't working, either. Not shooting—Hey, maybe whatever brought me here messed up the Dust? I thought maybe the..."

Miss Militia and Armsmater were staring blankly at me. Well, I assume Armsmaster was staring at me. His helmet was pointing my direction.

"What?"

"What do you mean, messed up the Dust?" Armsmaster asked.

"Well, made it so it didn't work."

"What do you mean by Dust?" Miss Militia asked.

"What do you mean what do I mean by Dust?" I waved my hands. "It's—it's—it's how stuff works!" I tried to channel Weiss when she was being smart and not mean. "Um—fire! Water! Lightning! Ice! It's for propelling stuff and powering other stuff and sometimes it explodes! Sometimes when it's not supposed to, but not usually. Um, it's—"

Armsmaster raised his voice slightly. "We don't have Dust."

"What? But—you have guns, and cars, and terminals and Scrolls and stuff! How could you do any of that without Dust?"

Armsmaster sighed. "...We cope. We have other ways."

"Oh." _Wait, if they don't have Dust_ —"I won't be able to get new bullets for Crescent?"

"Hm?" Armsmaster asked.

"Crescent Rose fires Dust bullets."

"Ah," Miss Militia said. "Your rifle will, I'm afraid, need to be modified or replaced. We have Armsmaster and another Tinker, I'm sure they'd be glad to help you with that once you're cleared for firearm use."

"Huh? Um, okay, I guess I'd rather not mess with Crescent. Um..."

"And while we're talking about Tinkers," she continued, "I'm sure the Guild would be interested in any Dust you sent them."

"Oh, that's Dragon's team, right?" I asked. "With Massa—Massamun?"

"Masamune," Armsmaster corrected. "And yes."

"Thanks!"

Armsmaster nodded. "To summarize...you have Aura, which can be used to protect you or make you stronger, gets depleted, and can be passed on to others. Your...Semblance is the ability to move quickly. You can make weapons like your scythe, but not anything with Dust. And you say you're from another Earth, which is why you have these supernatural powers and unusual technology."

"It's not called Earth, it's called Remnant. But other than that, yeah."

"I see. Do you have everything recorded, Miss Militia?"

"I do."

"Then we'll continue. Now, Ruby, understand that you aren't in trouble or anything, these are just the kinds of questions we ask anyone who wants to join the Wards. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, why did you choose to fight Lung?"


	4. Germination 1:4

"Now, why did you choose to fight Lung?"

"Well...because it's the right thing to do," I replied.

"That tells me nothing," Armsmaster said. "I have been a member of the Protectorate for a decade and a half, and I've never met anyone, heroic or villainous, who did not believe what he did was right. Some thought they were righteous because they were forced by circumstances, others because they were working for the greater good...but no one, _no one_ , thought he was doing something which was wrong and unjustified. So, why was fighting Lung right?"

"What? I...but..."

"You're not in trouble," Miss Militia said. "We just want to hear your reasons."

"Um, okay. Well, I was trying to follow Lung for a while because..." It suddenly felt silly to say that I wanted him to be my nemesis. "Well, I wanted to be a superhero. And then I heard he was going to shoot some kids, and...well...yeah."

"Why did _you_ need to stop Lung?" Miss Militia asked. "Couldn't you let some more experienced hero stop Lung?"

"Well—I—I didn't know if anyone else would, and didn't know how to contact them, and...well, if I didn't do anything, he'd kill a bunch of kids!"

"Thank you," Armsmaster said. "Would you mind explaining why you fought him the way you did?"

"Huh? Well...I can't fire lasers or anything, so I just used Crescent. I learned how to from my Uncle Qrow. I was garbage before he started teaching me, but now I'm _oo_ —"

" _Alright_. You mentioned you had a sister?"

"Yeah, her name's Yang. She's still on Remnant, though."

"Do you have any family who isn't on Remnant?"

"Um, nope."

"Well, then...that makes some things simpler and others more complicated. I don't suppose you're enrolled in any local school?"

"Nope."

"I see. More paperwork, then."

"Paperwork?"

"Sadly, you can't just 'nope' that," Armsmaster said. "Paperwork is, unfortunately, a major part of being a member of the Protectorate, or the Wards."

"Aw..."

"You'll be spending the next few days, maybe a week, doing paperwork and such. You'll also undergo power testing, a psychological examination—"

"Huh? Why?"

"It's standard. Also a physical and some other standard procedures, as well as training in Wards procedures and certifications for any equipment you want to use in the field."

"Like Crescent Rose?"

"Well...Yes. Once you've finished the basics, you'll be taking shifts at the console—"

"The what?"

"It's the big computer you saw."

"It's a computer? I thought it was just a—"

"A Ward manning the console helps provide information and to an extent coordinate our heroes on patrol. It's good experience. Speaking of which, you'll be sent on patrols as well, once you've finished testing, training, and certification, which will likely take several days. That said, there are a few things to get out of the way right now, or that you should start thinking about."

"Like—"

"We'll be enrolling you in school," Miss Militia said. "Normally, we enroll the Wards in Arcadia High, which is closest to the PRT headquarters—"

"Where's that?"

"We're in it," Armsmaster said with a sigh.

"—and has both a well-deserved reputation for excellence and a staff which has been working with the Wards for quite some time now," Miss Militia continued. "However, due to both its reputation and the fact that most everyone knows the Wards go there, a orphan—"

"I'm not an orphan! My dad's alive."

"—pardon, a girl who has no family or home being admitted to Arcadia ahead of literally hundreds of others trying to enroll at the same time as a girl with similar height and build joins the Wards would be rather suspicious. In cases like these, we send the new Ward to Winslow, the next-closest high school. Of course, even if we sent you there, we'd need to take steps to make you less..."

"Distinctive," Armsmaster said.

"Distinctive?"

"Obviously, you couldn't wear your cape," he said, pointing to my cloak.

"It's a cloak."

"Then you couldn't wear your cloak, not when you aren't in costume." _Aw, man._ "It probably wouldn't hurt if you stopped dying your hair."

"Dye?"

"Changing your hair color. Your hair is red at the ends."

"Yup. But that's my natural hair color."

What little of Armsmaster's face I could see looked really annoyed. "Your natural hair color is black just at the _roots_ , and _red_ , just at the _ends_."

"Well...yeah..."

"...If that is true, it would make it quite difficult to maintain a secret identity. Although we could dye your hair to—"

"I like my hair!"

"We all need to make sacrifices," Armsmaster said. I don't think he was very sympathetic about my hair. "But since you don't have any relations currently, I suppose it would not be much of a problem if you didn't have a secret identity."

"I want to do that. I never understood why superheroes hid, anyways."

"Perhaps you could ask the New Wave," Miss Militia said. "They face a good amount of harassment because of their public identities. Parahumans have caused many problems over the decades, even heroes. Some people will be looking to get revenge or restitution by proxy."

"What does 'by proxy' mean?"

"It means that they would treat you as a representation of all parahumans. Others will be angry that you, or other heroes, didn't save them or their loved ones. Not many would attack you, but there are other ways they can discriminate against you."

 _Like faunus. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen any faunus here._ "Is that it? That doesn't sound so bad."

"It also means that villains will be able to target you in your civilian identity, or friends you make. Most probably wouldn't, but not all. Aside from this being a potential danger, it'll complicate any friendships you try to make. And you'd need to be careful around the other Wards' civilian identities. But it's your decision..."

"From what you guys said, a secret identity sounds tricky and annoying. And I think the New Wave has the right idea, it all seems kinda pointless."

"You're sure?"

I nodded.

"Then I suppose you'll be going to Arcadia."

"On a different note," Armsmaster noted, "you might want to start thinking about branding."

"Branding? That sounds painful."

"It refers to codename, costume, that sort of thing. We'll have an expert brought in tomorrow, but you should consider what _you_ want to—"

"The Crimson Crusader?" I suggested.

"For your codename?" Miss Militia asked. I nodded. "I won't stop you, but you might want to talk with Kid Win about choosing the first name that comes to mind. In any case, you might prefer a simpler name."

"So, just—"

"Both 'Crimson' and 'Crusader' are already taken," Armsmaster said. "A problem you'll encounter with most names you'll think of, I expect."

"Most capes choose names which relate to their powers," Miss Militia suggested.

"So, maybe...Dash, or Flash, or Zoom?"

"Taken, copyrighted, and taken," Armsmaster said. "As are...Acceleration, Accelerator, High-Speed with and without the g-h, Hustle, Momentum, Rapid, Rush, Speed, Speedy..."

"Speedy?"

"A young rogue. Not important. Don't worry too much about the name, just start to think about what you'd like it to be _like_."

"Alright, I'll do that!"

"We should also briefly discuss your duties as a Ward," Miss Militia said. "If you don't feel comfortable with any of it, you don't need to be a Ward—you can leave at any time."

"Not a problem."

"You'd need to go to school, of course, and maintain good academic standing. You'd also be working a few hours every day, either at the console or patrolling, probably alongside adult heroes for the first several months. At the console, you'd be providing information and communication as requested to your fellow Wards, and occasionally Protectorate heroes or even PRT squads, if needed."

"Boring."

"On patrol, you would mostly be keeping an eye out for minor crime," Armsmaster said. "It's as much a way to remind the people that we're there as anything. If you face something which you can't handle, you will be expected to retreat." He paused, looking at me. "That said, it is possible that you will be ambushed by a powerful supervillain or a large group of criminals, and unable to retreat quickly. You could get injured, even as a Ward; it's part of the job."

"Meh, I can take them."

"Not all of them. If the Undersiders hadn't intervened, do you think you could have defeated Lung?"

"I..." _Probably not. I was running out of Aura, and he just kept getting stronger._

"Lung is the strongest villain in the area,"Armsmaster continued, "but there are others. Both Oni Lee and Bakuda have powers which are suitable for ambushes, and which would provide challenges you may not be equipped to handle. The ABB isn't the only group, either. The Undersiders are unpredictable; Grue and Regent could disable you, while Spitfire and Hellhound provided muscle, and then there's their new cape—an unknown factor. Faultline's mercenaries provide all the same issues, and since they are _mercenaries_ , there is always a chance someone with a grudge against you could hire them. Empire Eighty-Eight has as many capes as the other teams I've mentioned combined, many top-tier. Even large numbers of unpowered individuals would likely prove problematic, whether ABB, Empire, or Coil's soldiers. You don't seem concerned by any of this."

"...Nope." _Can Armsmaster read minds?_

"I see."

"That said," Miss Militia said, "typical Wards duty is nothing to worry about. Aside from patrols, you'll occasionally be assigned other duties. Mostly, they'll be things like meeting with the media, but occasionally we'll send Wards on short-term missions. If you're not comfortable with them—"

"It sounds—"

"—you can contact the Youth Guard. We have a liaison on staff. I believe tinkers have other duties, Armsmaster?"

"I wouldn't think of them as duties, so much as...chances to express our gifts. Tinkers are paid to simply _tinker_. Typically, a Ward would get a few hundred dollars per month, plus materials, a workshop, and additional payments for blueprints of anything you design. Including your scythe, if you're willing. This is on top of your normal salary."

"How much is that?" I asked.

"New Wards generally get paid minimum wage for their time patrolling and at the console, plus any other duties they are assigned, as well as an annual trust of fifty thousand dollars. For...situations like yours, you will also receive four hundred dollars per month to spend on necessities like food and clothing." Armsmaster looked at me for a moment. "You will probably receive an immediate bonus so you have more than one set of clothing."

"Alright."

"Do you have other questions?" Miss Militia asked.

"Um...oh, when can I meet the other Wards? And when do I start doing stuff?"

"You should have a chance to meet the other Wards once they've finished school today. You'll probably start school late this week or early this week, depending on when the paperwork is completed and processed. As for Wards duties, you should be ready for the console within a few days, and depending on what certifications you'll want, you might be able to start patrols around the time you start school. It'll be some time before you have your own workshop, if you want one, but until then you can probably work with Kid Win."

"...You said something about my stuff? Designs, something like that?"

"If you are willing, you could submit your scythe and...what did you call it, a scroll?" I nodded. "You could submit those for examination, so we learn a bit about how they work. You could get some money for doing that, and it doesn't hurt to have a design to your name."

"How'd that work?"

"We would send any devices you wished to submit to the Guild, for disassembly and examination."

"They'd be put back together," Miss Militia said.

"Indeed. And if you'd prefer, we might be able to arrange for your scythe to be examined here, by me."

"I...I'd prefer that, thank you. Um, no more questions."

"In that case, we should probably set up your account for the PRT systems and start scheduling your appointments."

The rest of the meeting was spent on boring things. I got an ID card, though. It would open things I was supposed to be able to go to, like the Wards room. When that was all done, they sent me there to fill out a few basic forms.

I was still there when the other Wards came.


	5. Germination 1:5

The door to the Wards' common room opened. I looked up from the terminal I was filling paperwork out on, glad to have a break. (I'd been wondering if super _villains_ had to do paperwork…) Several other kids, mostly older ones, had come in.

"Ruby?" a tall, tan-skinned boy asked.

"That's me! Are you the other Wards?"

"Yeah. I'm Carlos. Guys? Introduce yourselves?"

"I'm Dennis," said a red-haired boy. "Most people call me Clockblocker, though."

"Melissa," said a girl who looked younger than Ruby. "Everyone calls me Missy, though. Or Vista."

"Chris," said a brown-haired boy just a bit older than Missy. "Kid Win in costume."

"My name is Dean," a nice-looking guy said. "My codename's Gallant."

"I'm Richard," the last guy said.

After a moment, Carlos added, "His codename's Browbeat. He doesn't talk much. My codename's Aegis. That just leaves Sophia, and she—"

"—is a bitch," Dennis explained.

I glared at him. "That's not very nice to say!"

"What I was _going_ to say is that she goes to Winslow instead of Arcadia, so she only just finished her last class."

"Arcadia starts earlier," Dean added, "but it gets out earlier, too."

"It makes scheduling things with the whole team a pain," Carlos said.

"Meaning we need to leave her out of stuff," Dennis continued. "But there's a downside, too."

Carlos glared at Dennis.

"He doesn't like Sophia?" I guessed.

"No one _likes_ Sophia," Dennis said. "Although it's true I tolerate her less than most."

"You shouldn't bias Ruby's opinion of Sophia before they even meet," Richard said.

"You're right, I should let Sophia do that."

Carlos sighed.

"What's wrong with Sophia?" I asked.

"She's…" Dean paused, searching for the right word. "Abrasive. And aloof."

 _She sounds kinda like Weiss. No one liked her at first, either._

"I look forward to meeting her!" I said.

Dean smiled. "That's the spirit! I hope you're as eager to get to know the rest of us."

"I am!" _I should say I am, at least. Look on the bright side, Ruby, it's like the first couple weeks at Beacon all over again!_

 _Except that I don't know anyone…I miss Yang and Weiss and Blake and Jaune and…_

Dean smiled. "Don't feel down. We're here for you, okay?"

"Um, thanks."

Dean slapped his face. "Right, sorry, I forgot. I meant to tell you, I can sense emotions. It's part of my powers. I try to tell new Wards as soon as possible, since some people find it…creepy."

"I don't find it creepy," I said.

"Really?" Dennis asked. "Think for a second—"

Carlos sighed. "Dennis…."

"—it's basically telepathy," Dennis finished.

"Not really," I retorted. "And if it was, it wouldn't be very _good_ telepathy. Is that your only power, Dean? It would be kind of sad if it was."

Dean smiled. "No, no it isn't. Well, that's a relief."

Ruby shrugged. "I don't get why people wouldn't like you. You seem nice."

"Thank you, Ruby. I'm glad you"

"Now that we know each other a bit," Dennis said, "is there anything you're having trouble with?"

"Paperwork," I moaned.

"I hear ya," Dennis said. "But hey, eventually you'll get to go on patrols, where you get to run around for a while and _then_ do paperwork!"

I groaned. "I _hate_ paperwork…why does it have to be so hard? Back home I didn't need to fill out a zillion pages of stuff before I could beat up bad guys!"

"That was in, um…" Carlos tapped his foot twice. "Remnant, right?"

"Yeah! How'd you know?"

"Armsmaster prepared a file. It mentioned…your past as a Huntress."

"Huntress-in-training. Good, I was afraid no one would believe me. Hey, does that mean I get to skip training?"

Carlos sighed. "I'm afraid not. Um—"

"You didn't do much paperwork as a Huntress-in-training?" Dennis asked.

"Ugh, _no_."

"A lot of what we learn here is basically learning how to do paperwork," he explained. "Well, and how to avoid making too much in the first place."

Carlos nodded. "Thank you, Dennis."

"Oh. But I won't need to learn how to fight again?"

"You'll go through a quick test," Dean said, "but if what your file said about you and Lung is true, I don't think you'll have any problems there."

"I've heard a bit about these tests…what are they like?"

"Don't worry," Richard said. "Some of it's psychological, seeing what you can handle and be trusted with."

"I can handle any of it!" I said.

"I—I'm sure you can. Um, they'll be seeing how well you handle yourself in a fight, and trying to figure out how your powers work."

My eyes widened in shock. "They're going to _experiment_ on me? I thought they were the good guys!"

"Uh—yes, but—" Richard stammered.

"Not really," Chris said quickly. "I mean, they're not really going to experiment on you, not that they're not really good guys. They're just going to figure out what your power does, so they can use it best. You have super-speed and some defensive ability? They'll probably want to figure out how fast and far you can run, and if you can punch harder or see faster or anything like that—"

"'See faster'?"

"—and how tough you are, too. It's not like they're going to try and…what were you imagining, exactly? Sticking you with syringes and trying to replicate your power or something?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. I mean, I guess they'd want to know more about Aura. I'm pretty sure no one else here has awakened Auras. Well, except Miss Militia, but only because I did it for her."

Carlos and Dennis glanced at each other, briefly.

"What?"

"Just trying to think of if we missed anything, can you think of anything?" Dennis asked. "Anything we didn't make clear, anything you had questions about?"

"Um…what are all your powers again? I remember that Gallant and Kid Win have cool armor, and Aegis and Browbeat beat people up, and Vista…something about outer space?"

Missy shook her head. "I control _space_ , not _outer_ space. That means I can make things closer or farther away, or curve straight lines."

"That doesn't sound very useful," I said. "Um, I'm not saying that you're useless or anything, but—"

"I understand…it's not easy to explain. I've been finding a lot of ways to use my power."

"She's one of our most powerful heroes," Dennis said. "I'm the other."

"What can you do?"

"Can I show you?"

"Sure!"

"Dennis—"

"She said sure." Dennis put his hand on my shoulder, and suddenly everyone moved.

Carlos was talking. "—sorah thing—"

"What just happened?"

"He can freeze things in time," Carlos said. "You were asking about our powers when Dennis—"

"—when I clockblocked you," Dennis finished.

"Oh! I get your name now! Cool! I wondered why—uh, I _was_ asking about that. Missy and Dennis told me theirs."

Carlos nodded. "Everyone thinks my powers are super-strength, super-durability, and flight, but it's a little more complicated than that. My organs and tissues can adapt to deal with damage, which means that wounds don't affect me much and I can constantly hit full force without worrying about tearing my muscles or breaking bones. I don't get tired, either."

"How do you fly?" I asked.

"I have a bit of autokinesis. It's enough to let me keep moving even if my muscles get _really_ damaged, and it lets me fly."

"Your power is…neat." I was actually thinking something more like _gross_ , but I wanted to be polite.

"I've got some super-strength, too," Richard said, "but it works differently. I have biokinesis—that's control over my metabolism, anatomy, and so on—that lets me shape my body to be more muscular and durable, and point-blank telekinesis that augments my strength. I've been working to block attacks with my teke, too."

"Techy?"

"Short for telekinesis. T-E-K-E."

" _Oh!_ That makes sense. Kid Win has technology-ey stuff?"

"That's me," Kid Win said. "I'm a tinker. I make some laser guns and power armor, nothing special."

"You make lasers?"

"Yeah?"

"Cool!"

"Thanks, but—"

The door opened. A pretty dark-skinned girl walked in and looked at me.

Carlos quickly stepped in. "Ruby, this is Sophia. Sophia, this is Ruby. We're talking about our powers."

Sophia frowned. "I can walk through things." She turned away from us and started to walk away.

"Don't you want to talk to Ruby?" Carlos asked.

"No."

"I want to talk to you!" I said. I dashed over to her using my power. "Hi! I'm Ruby Rose. I was training to be a Huntress on Remnant—"

"I know. Shoo."

"We're supposed to be a team!"

"Yup."

"Doesn't that mean we should…try to get along?"

"Nope."

"You're not even going to try?"

" _No_. You're not getting off on a good foot with me, you know."

"So? Wei—my best friend back home and me got off on the wrong feet, but we're best friends now! Well, she's home now, so we can't—but we'd still be friends if she was here, too!"

"I'm sure. Go away. Maybe if you leave me alone for a while I'll be able to open up."

"Really?"

"Sure! And then you'll get a pony."

"Really? I always wanted a—"

"Are you familiar with _sarcasm?_ " Sophia sighed and flopped down on a couch, muttering something about brain damage.

I turned to the others. "Does leaving her alone work?"

"No," Missy said.

Carlos rubbed his temples. "Sophia is…problematic."

"I can hear you, dick!"

"Good!" Dennis said.

Carlos ignored them. "Just…accept her as she is for now. If she picks on you, let me or someone in the PRT or the Protectorate know. Dean didn't tell you about his power yet, would you like to—"

"Not really," I said, glancing at Sophia. _I guess I'll just do everything I did with Weiss? Maybe more of it?_

"Would you like to tell us about your powers?" Dean asked.

"I can run really fast."

"You have that…scythe-gun," Dean said. "Did someone make it for you, like Kid Win made my armor?"

I bristled. "I made Crescent Rose myself."

Dean smiled. "Really? It looks really complicated."

I shrugged. "It's nothing special. Most of it's just standard sniper-scythe parts I put together."

"I never would have guessed that."

"Well…I kinda mixed parts from the Weizen Double-Blade Folding Shotscythe and their Multi-Range Sniper Pike, and a generic Tetsuhando receiver and Dust-clip adaptor, and a few parts I designed myself."

"Impressive."

"I—it's not as hard as it sounds. But thanks."

"Out of curiosity, could you make something like that without parts from the wizen—without all of those parts, just with parts you machined?"

I thought for a moment. "Probably. Do you have Dust?"

"Um, maybe? I don't understand most technical terms, you'd have to ask Chris about that sort of thing."

"I don't even know what she's talking about," Chris said.

"Huh. Well, I'm sure you could work with Chris on something. He'd probably share his workshop, right?" Dean looked at Chris.

"…If she's careful with my stuff."

"I can be careful!" I said.

"You won't be able to do anything in Chris's workshop until you've filled out some—" Chris paused, realizing I had already dashed back to the terminal to fill out some more paperwork. He walked over towards me. "There are some other forms you'll need to fill out before you could use Chris's workshop, but then you might get some workshop space of your own. Once we have some space for you."

I spun around in my chair. "I'm not a tinker, though. Crescent Rose is cool and all, but it's not _that_ awesome."

Carlos shrugged. "I'll leave you to your paperwork, then. Welcome to the Wards."

I stopped spinning once I was pointing at the terminal again and tried to get back to work. I kept thinking about the other Wards, though.

 _They seemed nice…most of them. Dean's really great, and Richard reminds me of Blake. Carlos's a little like Yang, he's taking care of everyone. Missy seemed sad, I wonder why. Sophia's all mean on the outside, but Weiss was too…_

 _I probably shouldn't ask about painting our nails, trying on clothes, or talking about cute boys, it sounded like Weiss didn't like that kind of stuff. Fine by me. Other than that, what did I do with Weiss? Let's see…I fought by her side, cheered her on when she fought that boarbatusk, and then she was nice to me. So maybe if I go on patrol with her…Ruby, you're a genius!_ I smiled and began plotting how I would make Sophia get along with me.


End file.
